ARTH 103 1nd Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 3 Lecture 1 August 26 Paleolithic Period aka Stone Age Important Pieces of Art its Importance PALEOTHITHIC ART Lion Human shows highly complex thinking and creative imagination to make a figure that is only seen in the imagination Woman from Willendorf naming artworks before the spoken language is important first known as Venus from Willendorf evoked a religious connotation although there may not be a religious connection Horses Rhinoceroses Aurochs contains a lot of artistic technique such as overlapping value and contour Hall of Bulls contains twisted and composite pose a 360 degree panorama Cave paintings were discovered in hard to reach places leading to the belief that cave paintings were for a privileged group to gain knowledge Caves also contained relief sculptures often times created by modeling shaping damp clay of the cave s floor Bird Headed Man one of the few human figures in cave paintings and one of the few that told a story NEOLTHIC ART Woman Man showed an evolution through a more labor intensive art Stonehenge most mysterious work of art due to the mystery of how it was constructed very complex art form due to the different layers of construction site of ceremonies liked to death and burial megalithic structures are often associated with death Lecture 2 September 2 Sumerian Art and Culture Cuneiform symbols that were pressed into clay tablets with a stylus to keep records Most famous piece of writing The Epic of Gilgamesh For those who could not write cylinder seals were made rolled over wet clay and left a signature impression Ziggurats huge stepped structures with a temple or shrine on top each god and goddess had their own ziggurat Votive figures were placed at the bottom of ziggurats by the common people for a standin Akkadian Art and Culture Most Akkadian culture was adopted from Sumerian culture Spoke a Semitic language Sargon I the Akkadian conquered most of Mesopotamia Important Artwork Head of Man Sargon I sculpture deliberate damage to the left side of the face and the eyes mutilated to symbolically destroy its power the ears and the inlaid eyes have been removed to deprive the head of its ability to hear and see Important Artwork Stele of Naramsin honors military victory The Hittites of Anatolia May have been the first people to work in iron used for war chariots weapons chisels and hammers for sculptors and masons Noted for the artistry of their metalwork and for their imposing palace citadels with double walls and fortified gateways Hittite Stronghold at Hattusha blocks of stone used to frame doorways were decorated in high relief with a variety of guardian figures that were 7ft tall Babylonia Stele of Hammurabi outlines all the laws made by Hammurabi used iconography Neo Babylonia Most famous Neo Babylonian ruler was Neuchadnezzar II Important Artwork Ishtar Gate crenellation notch like gate effect Assyria Conquered all of Mesopotamia Most art glorified military power and aggressiveness Important artwork Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions element of naturalism Assyrians tend to not use the hierarchy scale Persia Darius I ruled Persia constructed Persepolis one of the best preserved and most impressive ancient sites in the Near East Imported work and materials from all over the empire resulting in a multicultural style of art that combined many different traditions Persian Mede Mesopotamian Egypt and Greek Lecture 3 September 9 Egyptian Mythology Ra creative force of the universe god of sun ancestor of gods and goddesses Shu Tefnut male female Geb Nut Earth Sky Osiris god of the underworld Seth god of chaos Horus child of Osiris Isis god of protection Hathor goddess of protection New Kingdom Important Artwork The Palette of Narmer Palettes were originally used to store kohl eyeliner to protect Egyptians against the sun and sweat Dedicated to Narmer for successfully uniting upper and lower Egypt Iconography Falcon Hours Human Head kingdom of lower Egypt Papyrus flowers symbol of lower Egypt Mastaba Tomb for the dead Serdab chapel within the Mastaba Sarcophagus layered coffin in which a preserved body is placed Ka Statue stand in statue when body disintegrates Old Kingdom Great Pyramids of Giza Greatest Egyptian construction no room for miscalculations Built for Khufu Khafa and Menkaure Sphinx is made to model a lion s crouching body and Khafa s head Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt Shows that the government can control chaos due to hippopotamus representing Seth god of chaos Canon of Proportion based on a grid Egyptian artists used this to make important figures abstract and all the same New Kingdom Kings started to refer to themselves as pharaohs literally meaning great house Change in religion led to praising the god Amun Temple architecture became important rather than just tombs Temple of Hatshepsut Tomb dedicated to the first female pharaoh Hatshepsut Tomb was marred due to Hatshepsut stealing the throne from her nephew and stepping out of Egyptian norms as being a female ruler